David Duchovny on Being Confined by ‘X-Files,’ Feeling Like a ‘Failed’ Movie Star

David Duchovny sat with The Hollywood Reporter for an interview, during which the 63-year-old X-Files star revealed he felt constrained by the show’s relentless nine-season run, and admitted he felt his career as a “movie star” had “failed.”

Despite starring as Fox Mulder on Fox’s sci-fi procedural for nine seasons (202 episodes), two theatrical films—1998’s The X-Files and 2008’s I Want to Believe—Duchovny’s theatrical career failed to start in the immediate aftermath of Chris Carter’s landmark series.

“This is the podcast that’s like, ‘OK, David failed at being a movie star,'” Duchovny said.

He had a few shots at leading-man status at the turn of the millennium, headlining the well-drawn dramedy Return to Me (2000) and Ivan Reitman’s 2001 alien romp Evolution. The same year, Duchovny worked with Steven Soderbergh on the experimental indie Full Frontal and had a memorable turn in Zoolander. But the opportunities dried up just as swiftly as they came.

“I think I did really good work in movies that weren’t seen,” Duchovny reflected to THR. “I did decent work in movies that were seen a lot. Return to Me is a really good movie, but it wasn’t a huge hit. So, all of a sudden, I’m not going to be the next rom-com guy. Evolution was a pretty good movie, and it did okay, but it wasn’t a huge blockbuster. So, I wasn’t going to be a huge blockbuster guy.”

Duchovny lamented that his career in film “never jibed…to make that magical moment” where he popped for audiences.

For a time, the actor felt that the industry had abandoned him. In 2007, he’d take on another ultimately iconic role as writer Hank Moody in Showtime’s raunchy sitcom Californication. It ran for seven seasons, concluding in 2014. But the intervening years were lean, to say the least, and Duchovny felt he was losing out on big film roles he would’ve excelled in.

“The in-between—doing a couple of movies that did okay, but not great, and not getting the things that I thought I could really score and do well with—that would’ve been the toughest time,” Duchovny said of the early 2000s.

Asked if he felt “trapped by the label of ‘TV star’” after returning to cable, the actor responded thoughtfully. When X-Files concluded in 2002, “ I would’ve said, ‘I’ll never do TV again,’” Duchovny admitted. “But I’d have only meant, ‘I’m not doing 25 episodes a year again,’” he clarified. “Because that was all there was (back in the ‘90s). When I did Californication, TV had changed.”

Though parts of his career didn’t work out as he hoped, Duchovny sees the bright side of things. “It enabled me to be a novelist, a musician, a director,” he said of his elusive film career. “I don’t really call it failure. It’s opportunity.”

Duchovny is currently promoting his new film, Reverse the Curse, which is based upon his own novel, Bucky F*cking Dent. In addition to starring, Duchovny wrote and directed the picture. It’s currently playing in select theaters. You can listen to Duchovny’s podcast, Fail Better, here.